58th State
by The Sky Hedgehogian Maestro
Summary: Welcome to Vyvsmeria, where you can eat stars, ride tornadoes, and much, much more! Are you tired of driving cars and looking at dull city colors? Why not visit 58th State?
1. Vyvsreti Trepado

Vyvsreti Trepado

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The blue hedgehog, a gothic cobalt under the lighting of the night, grabs his young friend's arm and accelerates, letting his feet shoot him well past the horizon. Wind splashes into their faces and diffuses through their fur as it already had been, his giant deep blue quills flailing in the wind of his violent increase in speed. The air ripples as sonic booms explode at machine gun pace behind them.

Blades of grass sways violently in his wake; branches of brush and shrubbery break and fly in the hedgehog's direction before landing haphazardly on the ground, the hedgehog and friend already long gone. A loop-de-loop comes up, with rings lining its only traversable path- passed! Twenty rings! Buckling with Sonic's running, Tails over his shoulder and sees the loop-de-loop disappearing in the distant background. All rings are on the r-card, safe and sound.

This new world is a strange one indeed! Sonic and Tails had hit the ground hard earlier, and were immediately surprised by Vyvsmeria. One thing being that it's **night**, _windy_, and very colour filled.

This verdant grass is of the greenest, most life-filled they have ever seen, and the stars in the sky twinkle with such clarity, the two constantly ask themselves if they aren't lookingat them from _outside_ the Earth's atmosphere. It _never _gets _this _clear in their world.

It startles them and I greatly to see a massive arc growing on the horizon, giving the illusion of shrinking at the apex of the sky and harmlessly returning to the horizon again as a giant. Many lights and beacons are visible on the superstructure's surface, while most of the structure itself is black. Part of the sides are illuminated by both sun and moonlight. It appears as if this Mobius has a technological ring! Now several miles away from where they had originally landed, Sonic and Tails had, in fact, been set down among rolling, endless hills that seem to disappear on the horizon like magic until you cross the horizon and realize there's more there.

But now they've arrived at a small lake, hiding in a depression in the hills. The amazingly brilliant sea of emeralds they stand on are collectively nudged in one direction by a ceaseless yet tender wind, all softly illuminated by the brightest moon one could ever hope to see under the blackest of skies encrusted with a skyful of astral diamonds. The choppy surface of the lake suffers no imperfection- it too reflects the full moon, its surface appearing like the most decorated of royalty in the sun. The bucolic and ultra-high contrast majesty of it all is _almost _enough to take Sonic's- _Sonic's_- breath away.

But it's what is hovering _above _this large lake that firmly grasps Sonic and Tails's interest.

Stars. Yellow, blue, and even rainbow-coloured stars. Not just any stars- _vyvers_! Hundreds of them. There may be _thousands_, all promulgating their fantastic existence by their hypnotic glow in front of an ebony sky and behemoth man-made ring. How had they not noticed them before? And are there more? Why are they where they are, and what is their purpose? Most importantly, do these taste any better or worse than the one Blaze fed them?

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"Are those the same as the one Blaze gave us?" Tails ponders in amazement. Sonic scratches his chin. Upon sight of the vyvers, he immediately craved another. If they stock up now, food will _not _be a problem later.

But how? Neither fox nor hedgehog have any clue just how high the vyvers are in the sky. They seem to be at a low altitude, but it has to be an illusion. _A cloud, easily a cirrus, among the highest clouds there are, sleeps over__the vyvers._

Sonic glances down, then back up at Tails and says, "Think you can get one?" Tails shakes his head with slightly frustrated eyes. Sonic thinks, If only there were some way to get to them. He turns his head left, looks back, then realizes he saw something there.

Hovering a foot above the ground like a magnet lifted by another is a slowly spinning vyver. It appears to have materialized out of nowhere, or perhaps it was already there and they had just not taken the time to notice. However, this one is different. It's _red_. Sonic nudges Tails with his arm and tells him to look at the vyver. Both stare at it with huge, mesmerized eyes, and flowing with his better judgement, the young Tails takes several relaxed steps towards it. As if time itself had sped up, he quickly found himself standing over the small, almost hand-drawn star. He grabs it, holds it up, and waves it excitedly at Sonic.

Sonic's jaw collapses as he stares behind the fox as yellow, blue, and rainbow-coloured vyvers fall from the sky, gently fall into place, releasing a noticeable "click click" as they do, and begin forming what seems to be some sort of avenue of vyvers. The air around the vyver road convulses madly as it becomes translucent. Space between the point Sonic and Tails and the still developing road's end appears to be something like a wave, its motion akin to breathing in that it's constantly expanding and contracting, expanding and contracting, expanding and contracting.

It takes no more than a half of a couple of seconds, yet it feels so much like hours pass before the vyver-made road is complete. Sonic and Tails look unblinkingly into its glassy interior. A mirror-like image of the night sky, filled with vyvers, stares back at them. Little globules of this warped air eminate some strange form of loving heat onto my face, but even in touching it, the weird matter still appears four dimensional. There is no sound coming from the convulsing air. There is nothing unstable about it or the road, the latter of which seems to extend for miles. It's made up of nothing but the vyvers and radiates a divine gold, speckled with sky blues, and streaked with rainbows.

Tails walks around the road, only to discover it's totally _**flat**_. It literally appears to be a mirror or a window. It's as thick as one. Perhaps it's a wormhole.

Sonic pushes Tails back just as the fox takes a step forward.

Sonic nervously lifts his foot over a rainbow vyver. The heroic hedgehog isn't worried enough to sweat, but he wants to ensure the avenue of colours will not give out midway and send Tails and himself forever lost in the void of hyperspace. It'll only take one crack. One moan. One click. One clack.

His heel touches the face of the vyver, then the entire foot. Once it's all on, Sonic lifts up his foot and pats the ground two more times. It's stable. He takes another step. Still doing well, he takes another. And another.

And another.

And another. It's all holding up! He begins walking at a brisk pace, then running.

Ever so often, he steps on a rainbow vyver and it glows brightly enough to nearly blind a man, yet the light feels comforting in a way.

"Come on in, the water's fine!" Sonic playfully shouts. He jumps from rainbow vyver to rainbow vyver, enjoying its warm, friendly glow. Tails shrugs and runs onto the vyver road himself.

The two continue running, laughing along the way. They race at times, but never slow down.

At one point, Sonic decides to run backwards.

Then the road gives way.

At their velocities, they are still pushed forward. When they look down, Sonic and Tails discover they're perhaps a _mile _or more in the sky!

They look around. Clouds, puffy and streaked, laze around. Stars, real stars, wink at the two from up above. Vyvers throw them emotionless looks as they glide through.

It takes the two a few seconds...

"Tails? W_-why _are we still in the sky?" As impossible as it seems, Sonic and Tails are _suspended _in the air! They fly like birds but with the chaotic wackiness of a UFO.

"Maybe Blaze sent us to an alternate universe," Tails reasons after a solid minute of thinking, "and the laws of physics are different here. Or maybe this is a future Mobius, or maybe even Earth, and the people here learned how to warp space." Was that a question or a statement, Tails?

"Physics doesn't even make sense in _our _world!" Sonic groans. He folds his arms and rolls his eyes. Suddenly, a cloud directly a foot over his head fades, revealing a yellow vyver. He perks up and instantly snatches it.

"You got one!" Tails cheers. The clouds, responding to Sonic's victory and Tails's cry of approval, begin to separate like water sliding off of a coastal rock.

The sky erupts. There is an ocean of vyvers extending for up to a kilometre. The glow softly illuminates the faces of Sonic and Tails like a cracking fire on a cold winter night.

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"_Assid chan! Assid chan!_" The man, dressed in a style of gently flowing, well-wrinkled clothing similar to that of a mythical Roman hero, and the hardened face and short, curly Mediterranean hair to defend that assumption, charges for Sonic and Tails as if he were an unhinged bull at a Soviet parade.

The two friends, hands filled with vyvers, exchange nervous glances. They wince sharply every time they hear "assid chan" (ɐ-sid kahn) yelled.

"Yo, uh...Do you- do you know what he's saying?" Sonic whispers to his younger friend behind his hand. Tails shakes his head, shrugging man is the bowling ball; Sonic, Tails and the dozens of vyvers, the pins. It is a direct, head-on strike. The man's tackle brings hedgehog and fox to their rumps. Vyvers fall to the illuminated grass, breaking at no point.

As for the two anthros, the Roman-esque man looks back at them and yells "_Morid chan_!" with tremendous anger in his voice. He points at them, or maybe it's the horizon. Sonic's the first to take a hint.

"Tails, I think he's telling us to 'go away'," he mutters lowly. The man stomps his foot at them; the two recoil. Sonic, missing no heart beats nor breaths, clenches his friend's wrist. There is another, brutal gust of wind. One can question if Sonic and Tails were ever standing in the field.

The man turns around. He looks at the stars in the skies, giggling as they hide behind the glowing vyvers. Shaking his head as he throws his hands down, the last words we hear him say are, "_Utes kino yet assir_." The man walks towards the face of a hill, yet as he does, he begins to fade into nothingness. Slowly his evanescence becomes more and more complete until, like the now thousand-mile distant Sonic and Tails, one could easily cast doubt on another as to whether he had ever existed.

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**A/N**: Thank you for reading the opening chapter of 58th State. As a bit of trivia, this was actually supposed to be the second chapter, and the one you are (hopefully) about to read was the first, but I decided to trip you up.

Please read "Planet K," locating on my profile. It may seem like I stole a bunch of description from there... but nope. In fact, 58th State is almost 8 months older than Planet K- at least 1/2 of the stuff I "wrote" in Planet K was originally in 58th State (or Intervysmestipated, as it had been named at the time).


	2. Saved the Princess

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**5**

**8**

** S**

**t**

**a**

**t**

**e**

By: The Sky Hedgehogian Maestro

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**Sebilya ke Rigison**

**Saved The Princess**

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Rubble is strewn across a huge swath of land, an ocean of jagged remains of twisted or torn metal, lying across cracked and broken pieces of masonry and copper. Small fires dance and twirl in isolated spots as if mystical ballerinas. Grass is brown and withered. Trees, leafless and dead, protrude out of a regal plain. A miserable place this seems! Yes quite the miserable place had it not been for their sudden presence.

Drooping like willows, Sonic, Tails, and Blaze stand near the Sol Palace, all injured to a degree their own. With much, much relief in her eyes, Blaze gives her palace home its first unstressed look in Chaos knows how long. The land around the palace has been levelled, but the extravagant and decadent structure itself remains standing, mostly unscathed. Blaze walks with a limp towards the palace's ornate entrance in front of a huge bracket drive-way, complementing a half-acre large fountain. Blaze's attire is ripped in a few spots, and her few stinging wounds do make her occasionally wince, but she is okay.

Here comes our hero, Sonic the Hedgehog, as he follows the princess, Blaze. Brushing away sweat and small droplets of blood from his forehead is all he does. His has no limp, but his body is covered in small scars.

"_That _was _fun_!" He cracks a fantastic smile, shrugs, and closes his eyes. Tails, real name "Miles Prower", but nicknamed Tails to follow Sonic's adoption of a street moniker, trails behind, in awe of the destruction. Some of his fur has been slightly singed, giving it a dark-brownish, unruly, spiky, and gelled appearance. However, he has few battle scars and also has no limp.

"Sorry about the spire, Blaze," Tails apologetically adds. Blaze turns her head towards Tails, never ceasing her strong limp towards the palace.

"Tails, after all you've done for me today, one spire makes little difference." The three continue their gait, nothing to do with destruction.

Inside Sol Palace, the three continue towards the Sol Emerald shrine, their amble even between each other.

Sonic whistles. "Man! This place is _wrecked_! You guys _really _must've been in a rush." The ghost of his whistle is still bouncing off the interior walls of the palace.

"It's not _that _bad, Sonic," is Blaze's rather quick reply. "Nothing royal carpenters can't fix. Besides, you're overstating it. _I _could patch this up myself if I wanted to."

"You never told us," Tails begins, "about what happened." Tails stops and picks up a piece of a metallic alloy that had found its way inside the royal palace. Still walking, Blaze explains with her usual demure disposition.

"About two hours ago, an intelligence official was tipped off about a large swarm of armed robots heading towards our capital city. We could only assume they were sent by Eggman Nega, so my father issued an order that everyone in the city evacuate immediately, starting with the residing aristocracy. I chose to stay behind to protect the Sol Emeralds."

"And that's when _we _came," Sonic realizes. He smirks again."We were in the _right _place at the _right _time." Blaze nods before shaking her head in remorse.

"That's right. Looking back on it, I don't know why I thought I could take on ten thousands robots on my own." It's with a regretful and pitiful tone she speaks those words. A small moment passes when she's given the reply.

"That's probably because you didn't _know _how many 'droids there were," Sonic adds optimistically. "And besides, I never knew you as one to ask for help since you, y'know, you're so good at everything." I'd say I'm sure I saw a hint of trouble brewing on Blaze's face at first, but too quickly, she smiled off whatever sarcasm was laden in that crass reply. Sonic, you see, knows when Blaze beats herself up and always reminds her of the bright side of things whenever given even a molecule of a chance. "Was Nega even here?"

"No. That's the weirdest part about it all. We have no evidence he was ever behind this reprehensible sneak attack." Blaze looks back for a moment. "But I _do _have my... my _suspicions_."

Tails is examining the piece of metal closely. He is so focussed in on it, one might assume he is staring down its individual atoms. "Yeah..."

The trio stops in front of the Sol Emerald shrine. Blaze turns around, closes her eyes, looks down, opens her eyes and says,

"I cannot thank you enough for all your help." Sonic chuckles lightly.

"Ahh! No problemo, Blazy."

Blaze goes on, "Really, I don't know how to thank you. There must be _something _I can..." And then she stops sudden and snaps her fingers. Abruptly, she walks out of the room. Sonic and Tails exchange glances before briskly following her.

"Blaze, we don't need anything. We're just glad we could help," Tails tries to reason. Blaze has already made up her mind.

"I won't take no for an answer," Blaze begins, rummaging through a decorated chest. "I know you like adventure, so I figured this would be the best place for you to go to." She pulls out a scroll from within. It's aged, a sepia yellow, torn at the already fuzzy edges, tied with a copper ribbon... the stuff Victorian steampunk-pirate adventure novels are made of. "I've been meaning to get you to go there for months now." Blaze hands it to Sonic. He snatches it. Its texture is soft, almost frail. A single strong breath might rip a hole in it. It is amazing it hasn't disintegrated in their hands. "It's an old map of Vyvsmeria; I'm sorry it's not up to date."

"That's OK with me, Blaze." Sonic unwinds the scroll. The map portrays a large, donut shaped country, with a huge lake, or perhaps it's a small ocean, relaxing in the centre. "You ever been there?" Blaze shakes her head. There is some shame in her response.

"Well, there are actually people in Vyvsmeria of course, the Emurans. The Emurans," Blaze begins, hesitating after the second word before beginning again, "already know who I am. All of us. Even your friends."

"Whoa, seriously?" Tails reacts in astonishment. Blaze shakes her head again.

"Don't worry about it, friends. Just... have a good time." Sonic nearly beats Tails's chest in, giving him the map.

"Not a fan of maps. I like to find things on my own." After a friendly half-nod, Blaze swiftly about-faces and limp-walks back to the Sol Emerald shrine. Sonic and Tails exchange more half looks.

"So are we really going?" Tails innocently asks. Sonic folds his arms. He rubs his noses as he says,

"Blaze wants us to go. I don't have anything else I need to do, n' I've been achin' for a go with Eggbuttnik for months now. Since he ain't showin' his greasy head, I'm goin'." Sonic throws a friendly glare at Tails. The young fox shrugs. He has no immediate plans either and Blaze _is_ a friend. It would be rude to reject a token of appreciation after all.

The two hear the echoing taps of high heel boots walking on stone. The click, clack, click, clack gets slightly louder. They turn around and see Blaze holding a small yellow star in her hands.

The star has rounded edges. It has the most basic of faces with two simple, dot eyes and nothing else.

"You steal that from Mario?" Sonic grinningly asks. The princess hands the star to Tails.

"What's this?" Tails asks, confused. Blaze genuinely smiles- a rare thing if you know her- and motions to him to taste it. Tails gingerly rips off one of the star's arms. He looks at it, then at Blaze, then back at the star. Once he's brave enough, he lets his teeth pick off a piece.

"Wow! It tastes so... so sweet!" Sonic rips off an arm himself and shoves it in his mouth. He only chews it twice.

"_Sweet?_ Tails, this tastes like a chili dog!" Sonic immediately jolts his head at Blaze. "Blaze, whatchu feedin' us?"

"That's a "_vyver_". Straight from Vyvsmeria. Vyvers are widely known throughout my world for their taste. It's the only one I have, for right now at least. There's a surplus of them in Vyvsmeria, especially in the C-Double-B region- they form naturally there." Sonic and Tails have already wolfed down the star. Sonic licks his fingers.

"That's it. We're going!" Blaze puts her hands behind her back and does her best to hide a friendly smile.

She looks back over at the Sol Emeralds, then back at Sonic. She then says, "Just walk to the centre of the shrine- in the middle of the Sol Emeralds." Sonic and Tails follow suit. Once in the centre of the circumference of the Sol Emeralds, Blaze walks to one of the far ends, arms folded.

"Where exactly _is_ Vyvsmeria?" Tails politely asks. "You mentioned C-Double-B, but I never saw it on any of your world's maps, and-"

"You'll see, Tails," Blaze quickly replies. She throws her arms out over the Emeralds and begins to concentrate, channelling the Sol Emerald energy through her own.

A vortex swirls around Sonic and Tails. It's weak and nearly invisible at first. In seconds, minute orbs of pure energy infect the whirlwind, giving it depth. There is no wind and little more than a slight "whirring" sound, only a virtual maelstrom inside the shrine. Tails feels the ground underneath him give out. In only a second, so does his hedgehog friend. They begin floating upwards, slowly. The vortex begins reaching higher and higher and higher until it's nearly out of sight.

Sonic and Tails easily here Blaze shout out from under their feet, "Jerg'dou, Vuneku!" And the royal cat, and the entire world, begins to fade away. Sonic and Tails last see Blaze waving at them.

"Thanks, Blaze! Listen, we'll see you later!" The words fall out of Sonic's mouth like air out of a jet engine. The two are able to lie prone as the whirlwind transforms the world into a wormhole through time. Once they are sure they are earshot, Tails turns to Sonic.

"Wait, what did she say?" he whispers under his breath. Sonic shrugs, stumped as well. A tunnel through space-time lies in front of them. All Sonic and Tails need to do is to take the first step into the portal to the splendid rubicon that is Vyvsmeria...

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	3. Ultraterrestrial

Ultraterrestrial

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Tails halves over and pants, each breath coming in as heavy and hard as it goes out.

Sonic leans on an apple tree. His endurance is much higher than that of his friend's. He turns his head in a ponderous movement, eyes drooped in his usual aloofness.

"Wa'nan apple?" he asks, flashing a brilliant red apple at Tails, though its red is darkened by the deep indigo of night. The hand with the apple droops; then Tails looks up and calmly shakes his head 'no'.

"Maybe later." Sonic shrugs and downs the fruit. Tails continues with urgency. "What I want to know is just where we are."

"Don't you remember? Vyvsmeria!" Tails prances back and forth in front of Sonic.

"No, I know, I know. I just want to know _where _in Vyvsmeria are we and _where _we could go for help."

"Well, we _could _look at the map Blaze gave us," Sonic suggests, his trademark smile slapped on his face. Tails looks up, ears stiffed as he mentally slaps himself for forgetting.

"Oh, _doy! _That's right! Good idea, Son-"

"_**Or**_, we could do this the_ Sonic Way_."

"Wait, _the Sonic Way_?" An eighteen-wheeler full of solid marble held above a grown man's head could not fall to the ground fast enough to beat the hedgehog's agility; Sonic's speed has already brought them both a mile away. Now more. And before one could finish this sentence, two more.

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_Everything is a blur_. The hills are a blur. The ground is a blur. The sky is a blur. The stars in the sky are blurs. The occasional trees are blurs. But then it all begins to slow. It happens as Sonic and Tails pass parallel a large, skyscraping mountain range, and make a sharp turn right into a dark forest that resembles a black cloak.

"Look!" Tails points over Sonic's shoulder. "It's a city!"

"That _can't _be a city. Look at the buildings, they're all swaying." Sonic comes to a complete stop. He lets Tails down onto his feet. Their eyes could outsize the moon.

"The buildings really _are _rocking back and forth!" They rub their eyes to make sure they aren't deceiving them. When Sonic and Tails look again, everything is still there.

"I gotta check this out!" Sonic wastes no second bursting off full speed towards the city.

"_S-sonic? Hey!_" Tails jumps into the air, his two tails immediately begin to rotate with enough force to lift the young fox into the air.

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The sun is still below the horizon, but the sky has changed hues. Unlike its previous sheer blackness, one horizon has begin to brighten, revealing a false amphitheatre of an indigo-violet.

It is the proverbial "wee hours of the morning".

Inside the still black-green forest lies, against common sense, a city filled with buildings with rounded roofs, swaying back and forth -or left and right- like giant worms in the dirt after a spring shower. Sonic and Tails enter the city, what should be a city, what could be called a city.

Instead, they find something completely different.

Sonic looks around, arms folded. "Sure are a lotta trees here, eh Tails?" Tails nods. Sonic snickers as he begins to say something, but Tails speaks first.

"It's almost like we never left the forest," he exclaims. "I wonder if anyone still lives here."

"We saw lights flashing on and off inside the buildings. _Somebody's _still here!"

They both look up at one particular skyscraper. Rounded and organic, the skyscraper more closely resembles a painted worm than a conventional building. There are many light sources than resemble windows that can be seen up and down the building. Erratically, they "flash" yellow, then turn off, then occasionally red or blue or silver before going blank. Not acting as a collective, the flashing appears to be somewhat like Christmas or police lights. In our world, physics would not allow for this building to stand so tall yet dance like a tree in a crazy hurricane without collapsing in on itself.

Tails turns to Sonic and mutters something. Sonic turns away from him and looks back at the skyscraper. Then he nods. They both trot towards the colossal, silly structure.

As they close in to the building, Sonic and Tails notice a problem.

"_**Where's the door?**_" Sonic asks. He runs around the wormlike building, moving within his own cerulean trail several times. Then he skids to a stop in front of Tails.

"That _is _pretty weird!" Tails scratches his chin as he thinks, Maybe this _isn't _a city after all...

"Hey, Tails, c'mon!" Sonic calls out, for a lack of a better word, 'Sonically.' Tails looks up at Sonic.

"How are you doing that?"

"I'm not doing anything!" Sonic is standing in between the inside and outside of the building- _literally_. He's standing half phased through it! This world really is obeying a different set of physics! Tails, unable to keep his jaw up, follows his friend. He says not a single word as he passes through the 'wall' of the tower.

Inside, they see nothing. The textures of the walls inside seem to be unlit copy-and-pastes of the ones from outside. Wait, what's thi- four figures stand in a square, facing each other. They're all covered in white head-to-toe cloaks. They're actually _glowing _an electric-blue white, like human-shaped globs of electricity. However, they do not crackle, nor is any electricity dancing around them. Again, I say, they appeared as if turning on a light.

Sonic and Tails exchange looks, baffled as to whether or not the silent four are someone speaking to each other. With no smile on his face, Sonic walks towards them. His head has to tilt upwards consistently as he gets closer. Finally, he's at the foot of one of the entities. His head is not even above its _knee_, where its knee should be.

"Hey...," he softly says as he extends out his hand in friendship. The being does not appear to turn around, but it extends his hand. In his head, Sonic believes himself to hear the word "Hello."

"My apologies, Sonic," the being, the man, replies in a divinely soft voice. "I am not used to speaking out loud."

"I'd ask how you know my name," Sonic begins with his notoriously cocky grin pasted on his face, "but that's too cliche for me. What are _you _guys doing?"

"It is of a matter of which you cannot understand."

"_Nor could he be able to help_," another crossly throws out.

"Heh! You don't know _what _I'm capable of! I'm Sonic the Hedg-"

"You're _**not **_like us," the first one interrupts. "You _**cannot **_help."

"How do you _know _I can't?"

"Because you already _will _and you already _have_, and you have **failed**." He speaks with certainty and sternness, yet at the same time, gentleness and reassurement.

"I already tried?" Sonic thinks for a moment. "Is it... about Eggman?"

"No. In the future, you try. In the past, you try. All at once, you try. As you speak here, now, you are, in the future, trying. **You fail**. Enough questions, Hedgehog. All I am now permitted to say is 'have a nice day' and please do not become involved in our affairs once again. Good day." The four beings suddenly disappear in the blink of an eye as if TV screens had turned off. Once again, the crickets and frogs keep up their symphonies.

"Geez. That was_ the _weirdest thing to happen yet," Sonic grumbles as he kicks a balled-up poster.

"I wonder what they meant when they said 'you failed'?" Tails asks. Sonic shakes his head.

"Huh. 'I failed'. _Wish I could remember what I failed at!_" Sonic turns around. "Guess it's their business." He looks around for any sort of stairs or an elevator. He sees none, but he does see many pine and oak trees and bushes where they shouldn't be, and walks around the ground floor, Tails following close behind. Eventually convinced that there's no way up, the two storm out and prepare to stomp around Vyvsmeria some more.

But before the can, Tails's eyes run across the crumpled poster. Noticing his friend's lack of concern for the thing, he picks it up and unruffles it, flattening it out with the palm of his hand. Scanning it, the fox kid takes on a stumped appearance.

"_Vyvskiyaiyen_... Hmm. 'Vyvs' again. And there's 'assid'..." Tails groans in frustration. "_If only I knew what these meant!_"

"Yo, Tails!" Tails's reflex is like a bird.

"Is that what I think it is?" Tails gasps in amazement. He slowly walks towards what he sees. Sonic picks up the dropped flyer, himself completely clueless. "But... _how! _In a city like this, why is there an old library right in the middle of nowhere?"

Sonic looks up and slyly comments, "Maybe this is the _historical _district no one cares about anymore." He tosses the flyer behind his back and follows Tails.

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The decrepit structure, with blown out windows and jungle-green moss entangling the entire perimeter of the library. What seem to be extremely faded graffiti can be seen on the side. Some of it is silver and seems to be like an "X" with a hook, but it's too faded and aged. Another appears to be grey, depicting something similar to a gear wheel. Hanging over the entire library is a giant wilting branch from an even more giant, loll oak.

Sonic lightly knocks on its huge, twenty metre high double doors and then again and again, harder. There is a loud, moaning creak that grows and grows. The door creeps to the ground and crashes, releasing a burst of wind.

Sonic pauses. "Guess no one's home!" The two walk inside.

"It looks like no one has been inside for at least 100 years," Tails hypothesizes, marvelling at the imposing, Roman interior of the building.

"Tails, look!" Sonic shouts, his call echoed by distance. Tails runs towards Sonic.

The hedgehog holds up a book, "_English to Emuran Translation_". He opens it and the two scan the book intensely, although Olde Man Time has not been very kind to this particular tome.

Its pages are yellow, brown even, and greatly torn. Its words are slightly difficult to read because of its age. Tails flips the book to its cover page and sees various copyright information. He notices the number sequence "1991-2012-2041-2078-2099-2102" over several crossing lines and something written in what may be this "Emuran" language.

"C'mon Tails! Let's get outta here." Tails barely follows his friend. Obsessed with the translator dictionary he is.

"I was _right_. 'Vyv' means 'star'!" Tails flips through several pages before thinking. "So, Vyvsmeria must mean _The Land of The Stars_," he reasons, "or...or _something _like that." Then he continues to think, "And the Vyvski...ki..uh..." Tails turns towards the exit. "Sonic, what did you do with the flyer?" No one responds. "Sonic?"

In a booming echo, Sonic's voice blasts throughout the massive, theatre-like library. "_**Hurry up, Tails**__**!**_"

Tails sighs bluntly. "Coming, Sonic!" I hate it when it he does that, the fox thinks to himself.

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_**S**_onic and Tails are now past the city, its lights saying goodbye and its wormlike buildings throwing them farewell waves. Now the two are deep within a forest that almost seems to continuously renew itself every several miles. Crimson glory radiates off their faces, just as it does the world around them. The leaves are rubies, and their home trucks are mahogany. Mountains blaze in the sun yet freeze simultaneously as a war wages between the winter clouds resting in the dawn sky. The sapphire heads of clouds struggle against the dying scarlet beneath. The sea of colours they ride on are just as inflamed- towards the weakened night lives a nearly blank indigo but it all warms from deep purple to pearly peaches and pinks.

"Learn anything?" the reddened hedgehog asks his friend. Tails delightedly nods.

"A whole bunch!" He closes the book and just as he does, he feels his eyelids becoming unusually heavy. "Sonic," he tiredly says, "when can we go to sleep?"

Sonic then yawns himself as one eyelid droops. "Yeah, we do need some Z's."

Immediately, the bumpiness of the terrain gives way to something smoother- _pavement_. As soon as they do, Sonic and Tails stops their quick sprints.

Directly in front of them lies a van. The odd van is covered with clashing and obnoxious reds, yellows, and blues with pictures of peace signs, triangles within triangles, spirals, and pyramids. Painted in a psychedelic font are the words '_**Poturete Emuran Secus Perah - Ke Vyvskiyaiyen.**_' Perhaps one of the odder aspects of the van is the fact that it has no wheels, nor does it appear to have anything to where wheels might be attached. Two figures stand outside the van, both equally as garish as their vehicle. Sonic and Tails then begin to move on, uninterested in their dealings.

Sonic nearly collapses to the ground. "Tails! Th-that word!" Tails himself has already stopped to wonder.

"Vyvskiyaiyen...Oh, right! From the poster."

"Wanna check'em out?" Sonic then stops himself. "Or maybe... maybe they're _not _Vyvs-whatever." Tails already began walking for them when he abruptly stops. Looking down in thought, he reminds himself to believe Sonic. In their world people sometimes decorate their possessions with slogans, pictures, or symbols they don't own. So why would it be any different in this world? After all, he knows nothing of this language; he's an American in ancient China.

"_**Waaa!**_" Sonic shrieks. He had turned around and as he did, one of the two from in front of the van towered over him with a huge smile on his face, the other beginning for them as well. The startled hedgehog catches his breath. "Phew!" He throws beads of invading sweat away from his brow. "You guys really scared me!"

The two continue to smile ear to ear. A large, nervous sweatdrop slithers down the back of Sonic's head.


	4. Spacescrapers and Crazyfaces

**Spacescrapers and Crazyfaces**

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He asked this in a tone suggesting he's met Sonic and Tails before even though he never has. "_Jahno_, jahno! Ming, tor gu votre ku?" If this were a cartoon, Sonic and Tails's jaws would be in China's sky.

Sonic speaks up. "U-um... Me no espanol?" The other two exchange puzzled looks.

"Ahh... pedon?" The man asks. Separate question marks figuratively pop over the two anthros' heads. Tails then scratches his head and tries to decipher their words.

He covers his mouth with his hand as he whispers, "Sonic?"

"No," Sonic replies immediately. Utterly let down by his friend, Tails rubs his chin and tries to formulate some sort of response. It comes too late.

"Um, _gu_ vat?" the man asks again, this time with more sass. "Seta gu hiryst yet votre ku y kolet?" He points at Tails, screaming at both. The words fell from his mouth like a poem and a hammer.

"S-sorry if we offended you, sir!" Tails innocently replies. Suddenly, the girl by his side pats the man's arm. Without saying a word, she motions to the man several different signals using her hands and arms. Then the man suddenly perks up as the light of realization flashes in his eyes.

"_Aaah!_ A moo. Reehkahns, you?" Neither Sonic nor Tails could keep their jaws above their feet. Their minds could not comprehend a word uttered to them. The man then says the strange word again, "Ah-moo. Reeh-kahn?"

"Um, Sonic," Tails then mutters, "any clues?"

"Nope," is the quick answer. The small girl then has an idea. A lightbulb literally appears over her head as she digs in a tote bag dangling on her shoulder. Sonic, paying notice to her, notices she digs much deeper into the sack than necessary. In fact, it almost looks as if her entire body could fit into it, despite being no larger than an tote bag. Out comes a political map.

The girl unrolls the map and points to a large landmass. It's name, "United States of America." To its lower right is the donut shaped continent of "Emura". The girl then points back to "America".

Sonic and Tails are utterly baffled. Tails shrugs in confusion.

"Sorry, guys, but...we're not from there." Tails believes his words may be falling on deaf ears, but goes on. "This may sound crazy, but we're not even from this _dimension_."

"No we are!" the man shouts out.

"You are? Or..." Sonic begins, shrugging in a defeat he suffered twenty lines ago.

"No good I say me tell," the man says, his face becoming long and shameful. Sonic grabs his head in frustration.

"_**What?**_"

"Sonic, I don't think he can speak English very well." The man turns around and smiles. He points to Tails and nods his head gleefully.

"_Pai! Pai!_" Tails sighs. Sonic follows his friend's lead, adding a well placed facepalm. They stare into each others' eyes for just a moment, letting their eyes speak while the two crazies watch on, baffled.

"Terkwoyze citeh, you?" Sonic doesn't respond.

"I don't know where to _begin_!" the young fox moans, just as a gleaming red beam of the dawn sunshine splashes across their faces. The sunshine of hope that existed on the man and the girl's faces has left.

Quite literally it seems!

"Hey, w-what's going on?" Tails exclaims. The rays of sunshine suddenly disappear and the ocean of the morning red gives way to the melancholy of dusk's blue. The once crimson trees become cerulean. The reign of red on cloud tops has been usurped by the rebellious indigo.

"There's no... ther..." Sonic can't even find words.

"How is it evening?" Tails speaks up softly but growing louder towards the end. "We haven't been talking for more than five minutes..." The two don't seem too worried, however, and silently giggle at the anthros' response. The man crouches down and throws his slender arms around Sonic and Tails.

"I, Machini Ledbetter are I are. Two of the you are?" Sonic rubs the side of his head, done in by the utter annihilation of English grating his poor, abused ears.

"Um...Huuuh? Oh! Is your name 'Machini Ledbetter'?" Tails looks to Sonic, surprised that he may have just understood something he himself missed. The man's response solidifies his shock.

"_Pai!_" the man cheers, quickly jumping up. Sonic and Tails jump back slightly.

"Pai...Hmm." Sonic rubs his chin, then turns to Tails. "Think 'pai' means 'yes' or 'no'?"

"Well, he _seems _happy, so I'll go with... 'yes'." Sonic then turns back to the man.

"Alrighty then, Machini Ledbetter-"

"_Misstuh_."

"Huh?" Sonic cocks his head to the side like a dog.

"_Misstuh_... Ledbetter." That immediately rings in Sonic's head. 'Misstuh=Mister'.

"Ok, Mr. Ledbetter." Now Sonic looks at the colourful, garish girl. "And you?" She motions like a schizophrenic having a nervous seizure trying to explain. However, she says nothing. Sonic, in a gesture for her to speak up, or perhaps to taunt her, cups his hand by his ear.

"Miss...Mobio?" Mr. Ledbetter suddenly says, watching from the sidelines.

"Miss Mobio? That's her name?" Tails replies.

"Pai! Hariel Mobio," Mr. Ledbetter suddenly shouts out. Mobio, highly animated, becomes frustrated and her arms droop. Instantly, she brightens up and grabs S&T's arms. She drags them to their bus.

"S-S-So-Son-ni-nic! Tails cries out in surprise, barely even able to keep up with Miss Mobio.

"Just go with it, Tails," is Sonic's flat reply. His voice bounces as well, but not to the degree of Tails'.

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The flamboyant neon bus sputters down a freeway at ridiculous speeds. Parallelling them on both sides for miles upon miles are sleeping, undisturbed trees- some green, some silver. As the garish death trap eases down the road, a phenomenon as brain busting as the sun returning to its slumber at dawn occurs. The sun rises at an exponential rate!

"Sonic, this place is weird," Tails moans. His brain, as powerful as it is, is still unable to fully comprehend the wacky workings of Vyvsmeria.

"Maybe the sun..." Sonic can't even come up with an answer. "Aw, who cares! The sun'll do its own thing." This comforts Tails slightly, but he still can't get over just how odd this world is.

"Sonic, did you notice that?" the young fox asks as he points to the distance.

"What? Oh- oh! Whoa!" Jutting out from behind the trees is an enormously high needle shaped building. Faded out by distance, the fact it appears this high from this far away is still impressive.

"Only Eggman could build something like that!" Tails exclaims. He doesn't want to let the thought pass through his head, but it is a scenario. "You think Eggman..."

"Tails, if Eggman ruled here, I'd doubt there'd still be any living trees. You know he hates nature." Tails nods in agreement.

"Maybe we were sent to the future," he hypothesizes. "But I've never heard of the 'United States of America' before." He sits back in a chair and pops some donut-shaped mints. "Maybe it's a ... future country? Like the United Federation of Mobia?" Orange sunlight once again drenches his and Sonic's faces and the forest becomes ablaze with reds and peaches bouncing off of groggy leaves. Tails spends the next fifteen minutes in trance with the English-to-Emuran Translator dictionary. Sonic becomes rather restless.

"Can't this thing go any faster?" he begins to groan in annoyance. Then he remembers that this is probably a vacation from Blaze. Even the great Sonic the Hedgehog should know when to slow down and enjoy the view!

"Sofa rear!" Mr. Ledbetter shouts, his voice amplified by the cheap plastic walls of the bus.

"What did he say _this _time?" Sonic asks Tails. Tails consults the book. Finding nothing, he puts it down before being given a tiny crystal pyramid by a smiling Mobio.

"Oh, thanks." Looking for but not finding it, Tails feels around for something to activate what he immediately assumes is an atlas hologram. Mobio taps his shoulder before tapping her own head. That's when it makes sense- Tails then focuses on the pyramid and voila, out comes a floating map. "Soaf..Soaf...Sofe...Soph...Sophi-rear! Sophirear. Here we go." Sonic leans on and looks over Tails shoulder. "City in south-central Emura. Formerly 'Narismetero'. Population, 127,364 humans, 1,688 droids."

"Droids?" Sonic asks.

"And twenty three chibis," Tails adds at the last second. He shuts the book; a small gust of wind escapes from it.

"Chibis? Huh." There is a zapping sound that comes from the front of the bus. Sonic and Tails jump up to see what is happening. They see a red vyver being shot out in front of the bus.

"I remember those things..." Sonic mutters. "That was kinda fun!"

"We're driving into it!" Tails cries out.

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"Tails..." Sonic begins, astonished. "I don't think we're in Station Square anymore."

All around the bus, fantastically futuristic styled structures sitting juxtaposed to Renaissance and European buildings. Some show great signs of '50s Americana. Yet the most striking aspect about it all is how _blue _it all is. It's obvious that literal blue buildings are a great, microscopic minority, yet there is a nagging tint to the city in this light of day that forces it all to radiate a brilliant cerulean, adding to the advanced, positive feeling of the city. 360 degrees, there is a motley crew of varying building design styes, and an even motlier variety of people.

The bus creaks to a stop at a terminal. Sonic and Tails follow Mr. Ledbetter and Miss Mobio into the street.

Sonic's the first to throw a sly comment. "At least there's no _worm _buildings." One building's shaped and styled like a computer chip, while another directly parallel to it is made of stone slabs in a post-and-lintel manner.

Directly down a large avenue is an old fashioned, red-on-white circus tent.

"Utes etnoch kino yet octet!" Mr. Ledbetter squeals. He puts on a conductor's hat, or some kind of hat like it, and runs down to the tent at full speed. Miss Mobio voicelessly sighs and digs her face into her hand as she shakes her head. She then proceeds to follow Mr. Ledbetter.

Sonic and Tails almost do such as well, until Miss Mobio holds out her hand as a gesture for them to stay back. She shakes her head, no smile on her face- a first to Sonic and Tails- and then walks off in the direction of the circus tent. That's a misnomer- she was dragging herself to the tent.

"Weird." Tails scratches his head as he studies the English-to-Emuran translator. "Say, whatcha find in there, bud?"

"Well, I have been able to decipher the most common words, but I'm still kinda stumped," he replies as he shakes his head in frustration. "It's a false friend of a language, I have to say that."

Sonic looks around when his friend is finished. He checks the skies, the streets, and the alleyways.

"Hey Tails."

"Hm?"

"Notice... there are no more vyvers?" Tails suddenly looks around. _Odd_. Around Worm City, there was an abundance of vyvers. Maybe it was just that place? Or maybe that was C-Double-B. But it didn't _look _like C-Double-B... "So, what about the language?" Sonic asks, still checking for vyvers.

Scratching his head, Tails answers in a scholarly manner, "Emuran appears to bear great resemblance to English. In fact, its very Romantic structure is almost exactly the same. However, its words and some of its grammar rules appear as if someone took English and threw it in a jet-powered blender. That's what makes it so confusing. It appears to have some infinitives that act as singular phrases, while others nee-"

"In English?" Sonic sighs. Tails smiles coldly.

"Was that supposed to be a pun?" Sonic and Tails walk into the shadow of a massive structure. They both look up.

"It _does _kinda capture Eggbutt's style." The building, complete with sexy curves and a chrome-metallic perfection, extends so far into the sky, the two anthros aren't sure it _ever ends_. It's as if saying it's a skyscraper would be to mock it. This structure is scraping _space_; it's a **spacescraper** in that sense of the word.

Tails walks up to a sign in front of a plaza sitting under the towering building. "_Taiden Tower_."

"Wow, something's _actually _written in English?" Sonic jokes. The more he looks at the tower, the more he feels like scaling it, up and down, several times within a second. Whether it might actually take that little amount of time, he becomes less certain of when he skips back to get a better view.

That's when the two hear the sound of a whistle.


End file.
